Question about Tuxedo cats

wdfifteen · wdfifteen's Garage

Are they all skittish? I've only had the opportunity to be around two, and both of them were slow to warm up to people. It took six months for the one who lives at our house to let me pet him. Even now, if you come close to him he arches his back for a second. After 4 months or so he would get up on my wife's lap and let her pet him, but he bolts at the slightest sound. My son has a female Tuxedo and she is the same way.

unclebilly · unclebilly's Garage

No. My neighbor has one that I met on Thursday. I stopped by with some spent grain for his sheep and the tuxedo cat wouldn’t get off my trailer, even when I started to drive away. Very friendly cat. Not skiddish. Liked eating spent grain.

Skytrooper · Skytrooper's Garage

We had one for a long time. He passed over a year ago. He was a friendly, affectionate cat. He used to sleep with the dogs. The only thing that got him moving was if the dogs suddenly started barking. Then he would run an hide until the commotion died down. He wad a good pal, slept next to me every night.

astrochex · 02-13-2023, 01:36 AM

Our brother and sister rescues have always been people shy. We don’t know what they went through before we got them at ~10 weeks of age.

oldE · 02-13-2023, 03:44 AM

Since all three of our B&Ws were rescues, I can tell you their behavior is shaped by their experience. The first lost his mother too soon. I remember him trying to nurse on our Border Collie. The other two were with their mother when we got all three. She had had a bad experience with dogs so the first months were rough ( on the dogs), but they all settled down to the good life.

Best
Les

Norm K · 02-13-2023, 05:22 AM

It's been several decades, but as I recall Tennessee Tuxedo cats are anything but skittish.

_

stomachmonkey · 02-13-2023, 06:05 AM

Have had an Orange and a Grey tuxedo.

Both were friendly.

The Orange one was dog like, would great people at the door, nothing fazed him.

jamesnmlaw · 02-13-2023, 07:00 AM

We all come with baggage.

speeder · speeder's Garage

What's a tuxedo cat?

Pazuzu · 02-13-2023, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

What's a tuxedo cat?

https://lmgtfy.app/?q=tuxedo+cat

Ha!

Sooner or later · 02-14-2023, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

What's a tuxedo cat?

speeder · speeder's Garage

I think that my sister has a couple of those and yes, they are skittish. Sample of two.

greglepore · 02-14-2023, 12:15 PM

We had a Tuxedo (recently passed) that would hang out with anyone, and went walking with us whenever we took the dogs out. About as sociable of a cat a I've seen.

I do miss the Infamous TRB (tuxedo rat bastard).

wdfifteen · wdfifteen's Garage

What a difference a few months makes.
Three months ago our Tuxedo cat TK would barely let you near him. Now he sits at the door waiting for someone to come out and pet him. He is suddenly the most affectionate and attention seeking cat of the bunch.
I like it.

Bill Douglas · 07-09-2023, 11:22 AM

My two tuxedos are very friendly. Both want hugs and kisses, and like to "talk" to me LOL

stomachmonkey · 07-10-2023, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

What a difference a few months makes.
Three months ago our Tuxedo cat TK would barely let you near him. Now he sits at the door waiting for someone to come out and pet him. He is suddenly the most affectionate and attention seeking cat of the bunch.
I like it.

It can take a while.

All my cats are rescues. Our current oldest is Loki.

When we got him he was as close to full Feral as you can get without being full Feral.

The first 6-7 years if he saw me from 20 ft away he'd take off.

Loved our son, (for some reason he's the favorite for all our cats) and tolerated my wife and daughter.

Couple of years ago, I guess shortly after the boy went off to college, he would actually tolerate me sitting on the couch next to him.

That has progressed to him sitting on the coffee table waiting for me to sit down so he can crawl into my lap for pets.

Even our cat sitters have commented on his change. Used to be if they were sitting for us a week would go by with no sighting of him. Lately he comes out to say hello.

He also learned, sort of, how to meow. One of the tells between Feral and domesticated cats, someone's stray pet, is Ferals very rarely if ever vocalize to people.

It's a rather pathetic meow though, not full throated and melodic like a pet cats but this really short quiet kind of creaky sound. Took us a while to realize it was actually coming from him.

wdfifteen · wdfifteen's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

He also learned, sort of, how to meow. One of the tells between Feral and domesticated cats, someone's stray pet, is Ferals very rarely if ever vocalize to people.

It's a rather pathetic meow though, not full throated and melodic like a pet cats but this really short quiet kind of creaky sound. Took us a while to realize it was actually coming from him.

That's interesting. TK's vocalization from the start was "Ack" like Bill the Cat. But now he sometimes makes - as you describe - a rather pathetic, creaky, meow too.

stomachmonkey · 07-10-2023, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

That's interesting. TK's vocalization from the start was "Ack" like Bill the Cat. But now he sometimes makes - as you describe - a rather pathetic, creaky, meow too.

The really interesting one thing happening in my house is recently Natasha has started to mimic Baby.

Natasha and her brother we have had 7-8 years or so now.

She is a total Diva and has some interesting vocalizations. We can pretty much tell what she wants based on her location and how she "talks". Different vocalizations even in the same location mean different things.

So about 2 years ago we got Wanda, aka Baby. She was a kitten that was stuck under the hood of the neighbors GF's car for 3 hours.

Baby is a real chatterbox and has a very distinct high pitched tone. It's a very fast paced series of vocalizations.

Last few months Natasha has started copying Baby because my wife spoils Baby and Natasha has realized she gets attention faster by pretending to be Baby.

She will only mimic baby from spots in the house where we can't actually see her to figure out which one it is before getting up to check.

Cats are fascinating manipulative creatures.

A bit unsettling when you realize you are sharing your home with perfect Apex predator murder machines who only let you live because you are too big for them to take on.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

We had one we called "Mohawk". He had a perfect bow tie on his nose. Great playful cat.

The best golf club in the Albany NY area was "The Mohawk Club"

wdfifteen · wdfifteen's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

A bit unsettling when you realize you are sharing your home with perfect Apex predator murder machines who only let you live because you are too big for them to take on.

Holy crap! I never thought of it that way.

It is a constant struggle to keep the cats predating the bad critters around the place and leaving the good ones alone.
Since the cats moved in the skinks are gone. It took them one summer to wipe them out. I have to put pans of water under the bird houses to keep the cats from trying to get at them.